Electric street-lighting.



G. H. FROELICH.

ELECTRIC STREET LIGHTING.

APPLICATION IILBD JULY 5, 1910.

Patented Dec. 27, 1910.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

THE NORRIS PETERS 00-. wAsmua-rcm, u. c.

G. H. FROELIGH. v ELECTRIC STREET LIGHTING.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 5, 1910.

0 1 9 1 lu 2 0 e D d m n 0a P THE upnms PETERS cc., WASHINGTON, b. c.

CARL HENRY FROELIGH,

OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

ELECTRIC STREET-LIGHTING.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Deg, 2'7, 1919,

Application filed July 5, 1910. Serial No. 570,326.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CARL HENRY Fron- LICH, a resident of St. Louis, State of Missouri, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Electric Street-Lighting, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The invention relates to electric street lighting and designs more particularly to provide improved devices whereby electric lamps, for street lighting, may be suspended by overhead wires or cables and also to provide improved means for housing the lampsocket and the electrical connections for the lamps, so that they will not be affected by the elements.

The invention consists in the several novel features hereinafter set forth and more particularly defined by claims at the conclusion hereof.

In the drawings: Figure 1 is a perspective of a device embodying the invention, illustrating the manner in which it is used when a number of lamps are to be connected in series. Fig. 2 is a similar view showing the manner in which the device may be suspended when a lamp is singly connected to the electric lighting circuit. Fig. 3 is a central vertical section. Fig. 1 is an inverted plan of the lamp-shade and bottom plate. Fig. 5 is a similar view to Fig. 3, showing a modi fication of the invention, in which another form of lampsocket is employed in the housing. s

In street-lighting it is now customary to provide a rigger or suspension-device having a pair of arms which are suspended from overhead wires, and in practice it has been found that in storms or windy weather the lamps carried thereby are not securely sustained against lateral swinging, the arms being oppositely disposed so that the lampholder is comparatively free to swing transversely to the arms and in some instances the lamps and holders are torn from the supporting-wires and in falling become broken and are thus rendered useless. An important feature of the present invention consists in providing a rigger or suspensiondevice for a lamp-holder which is provided with at least three arms, each adapted to be connected to a supporting or conducting wire, so that the holder will be firmlysuspended so it will not be free to swing laterally and so that it will be more efiectively secured or suspended against breakage. The rigger or suspension-member consists of a spider or frame 9 provided with three outwardly extending arms 10, 11 and 12. The outer end of each arm is bifurcated, as at 13, and is provided with an insulating spool 14. A bolt 15 secures each spool in the bifurcated end of one arm. hen a number of lamps are to be connected in series, a wire 16, which may be one of the main conductors, is secured to the insulator 14 of the arm 12, by a strip of wire 17, a conductor-wire 18 has its terminal wrapped around the insulator spool 14- of arm 11 and a conductor 19 has its terminal coiled around the insulator 14 carried by arm 10. Each of the wires 18 and 19 are connected to the lamp-terminals, as hereinafter set forth. Wires 16, 17 and '18 are stretched in substantially parallel relation between suitable posts or supports and by reason of providing a three-point connection for the suspension-member or rigger 9, the latter will be firmly held against lateral movement in any direction.

As shown in Fig. 2, the arms of the suspension-member are respectively connected to two conductor-wires 18 and 19 and to a supporting-cable or wire 20. This manner of suspending the rigger is adapted for lights which are singly connected to the main-conductors, the branch-conductors 18 and 19 being usually connected to a supporting-post at one side of the street and the cable 20 being ext-ended around a sheave 21 on a post 22 at the opposite side of the street, so that by slackening the cable 20, the rigger and lamp-holder carried thereby may be lowered as desired in inspecting the device or replacing lamps in the holder. In this manner of suspending the rigger or suspension-member, a three-point suspension is also provided for the rigger so that it will be firmly held against lateral swinging by the suspension-elements. The invention thus provides an improved rigger or suspension-member which makes provision for three wire connections which may be used either for lamps in series, as illustrated in Fig. 1, or for lamps which are singly connected to the conductors as illustrated in Fig. 2 and in which provision is made for raising and lowering the lamps by the cable or wire. It will be understood that the lower end of the wire 20 is usually connected to a windlass (not shown) as well understood in the art, for convenience in raising and lowering the holder and lamp.

The center hub of suspension-member or rigger 9 is provided with a hole 24, through which extends a screw-threaded nipple 25 projecting upwardly from the shell or housing 26 and a nut 27 is adapted to secure the nipple and housing in position beneath the rigger. The nipple 25 has its lower end ex panded, as at 28, and is secured to the upper end of the shell or housing 26. vThe chamber in the housing 26 serves to inclose the lamp-socket and the electrical connections from wires to the binding-posts or the contacts of the socket. The terminals of each of the conductor-wires are extended through an insulating-nipple 30, which has its inner end screw threaded and is held snugly against the outer side of the shell by a screwthreaded collar 31 on the screw-threaded inner terminal of the nipple. This connection protects the opening through which the wires pass into the chamber in the housing or shell 26. A lamp-socket 32 of insulating material is secured in the shell by supporting-strips 33 and binding-posts secured in the socket are adapted to provide contact-s for the terminal-strips of an electric lamp of the type which is adapted to be inserted by pushing the lamp into the socket, as well understood in the art. A plate 38 is removably secured to the lower end of the housing and serves as a bottom-plate thereof, being provided with an opening 39 through which the base 40 of the electric-lamp 41 is adapted to extend. This plate is provided with slots 42 each having an enlargement 43 at one end adapted to slip over the heads of rivets 44, which are secured in a flange 45 of the housing 26, so that the plate may be removed by turning it until the enlarged portions 43 or slots 42 are brought into position adjacent the hubs of rivets 44, to permit the plate to be disconnected from the shell. The bottom plate 38 is extended downwardly and outwardly to form a reflector 48 for the lamp. The outwardly extending flange 45 for the lamp forms a shoulder for the bottom-plate and shade and is extended clownwardly as at 49 around the downwardly extending portion of the bottom-plate to provide a water-shedding connection between the shell and the shade. Y

In Fig. 4, the improved holder is shown as provided with a modified form of lampsocket adapted for an Edison lamp. A screw-threaded shell 49 is secured to the top side of the bottom-plate 38. A screwplug of suitable material is screw threaded into shell 49. This plug is of a form well understood in the art, having a socket therein adapted to receive an Edison lampbase and the terminals of conductor wires 18 and 19 are connected to the contacts in said plug.

The invention thus provides an improved suspension-device for electric lamp-holders for street-lighting and an improved holder which is simple in construction and protects the conductor terminals and lamp sockets effectively from rain.

The invention is not to be understood as restricted to the details shown and described, since these may be modified within the scope of the appended claims, without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Having thus described the invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. In electric street lighting, the combination of asuspension-member having three arms, flexible supporting elements respectively connected to said arms, a lamp-holder secured to said member, and an electriclight socket supported by said holder.

2. In electric street-lighting, the combination of a suspension-member having three arms, flexible supporting elements respectively connected to said arms, an insulator at the outer end of each arm, a lamp-holder secured to said member, and an electric socket supported by said holder.

3. In electric-street lighting, the combination of a suspensionmember having three arms, flexible supporting elements respectively connected to said arms, each of said arms having its outer end bifurcated, a lamp-holder secured to said member, and an electric light socket supported by' said holder.

4. In electric street lighting, the combination of a suspension-member having three arms, flexible supporting elements respectively connected to said arms, each of said arms having its outer end bifurcated, insulators in the bifurcated end of each arm, a lamp-holder secured to said member, and an electric light socket supported by said holder.

5. In electric street lighting, the combination of a suspension member, flexible supporting elements connected to said member, a shell secured to said member, an electric lamp-socket in the shell, a plate for closing the bottom of said shell, said shell having openings in its side for the leading-in wires, and means for protecting said openings.

6. In electric street lighting, the combination of a suspension-member having arms, conductors connected to said arms respectively, a shell secured to said member, an

electric lamp socket in the shell, a plate for each having insulating-means at its outer removable plate around the lamp-socket and enil1 for connection to a wire, a housing,1a for closing the bottom of the housing. ho cer for clampin the ousin central y a 1 to the suspension-mamber, a sha de secured CARL HENRY BBOELIGH' 5 to said housing, the latter having insulated Witnesses:

openings for the leading-in Wires, an elec- HILDUR C. PETERSEN, trio light-socket Within the housing, and a FRANK W. BAUM. 

